Hunky Hugh Jackman Enjoying Monster Success

May 09, 2004|BY RON DICKER, THE HARTFORD COURANT

NEW YORK — The star of 'Van Helsing' has gotten good reviews on Broadway, too, and rumors fly about him as the next James Bond.

When director Stephen Sommers asked Hugh Jackman to play the lead in his $150 million monster romp "Van Helsing," Jackman hesitated. He had just reprised his role as the Ginsu-clawed Wolvervine in "X-Men 2," and he felt his career was at a delicate juncture.

"I thought I was going to do a smaller independent movie after that to do something different," he says. "I was reluctant to be in another summer popcorn movie."

Jackman told Sommers, the creator of the modern "Mummy" series, that if "Van Helsing" became a hit, it was sure to spawn a sequel and generate more demands on his time. Then Sommers cut him off.

"I think you're the only actor in Hollywood who's nervous about being in two successful franchises," Sommers told him.

Jackman, of course, finally agreed to do the titular part of the Dutch vampire slayer and occult expert, and his handsome mug now fills thousands of screens after the movie's opening Friday to start the action-adventure season.

It is no small honor that Jackman's and co-star Kate Beckinsale's names appear above the title, a first for Jackman, who can laugh his way to the bank over his fear of being too much of a star.

Since October, he has had a chance to show off his song-and-dance chops on Broadway as the flamboyant performer and fellow Australian Peter Allen in "The Boy From Oz."

Jackman, 35, had made his way to Hollywood on the strength of his Curly in a 1998 London staging of "Oklahoma!" It also became the link to "Van Helsing."

In the audience one night was Bob Ducsay, who would later produce "Van Helsing" for Universal.

"Hugh couldn't have been on the stage more than five minutes when I'm thinking, 'Who is this guy?'" Ducsay says. "The level of charisma that he brought to the role, the strength that he brought to the role, the physicality he brought to the role in a musical, of all things, somehow seemed to apply here." It also applied to "The Boy From Oz."

Jackman's exuberance has overcome mixed reviews for the overall show. Already tabbed to host the Tony Awards for the second year on June 6, he is also likely to receive a Tony nomination when the candidates are announced Friday. Jackman has molded such a signature performance that producers have not bothered with an understudy when Jackman has gone on vacation or fallen ill.

That alone has made the pressure greater than headlining a big-budget movie.

"With the stage show, it's changed in that, if I'm sick, the show's off," he says. "If I had a bad day filming, I could ask for a rescheduling. Reviews affect the show. Summer movies exist on a whole other level."

So what has propelled him through the grind?

"B-12 shots, man, seriously, and a very understanding family," he says.

Jackman is downsizing again for Darren Aronofsky's new movie, "The Fountain," in which he plays three characters in a tale that revolves around the Fountain of Youth. Jackman recently made a short film directed by his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, called "Standing Room Only," about a line of people outside a West End theater.

He and Furness, with whom he starred on the Australian TV series "Corelli," have an adopted son Oscar, who makes a brief appearance in Jackman's arms at the end of the interview. Jackman had said he would slow down his career for Furness to work on her own aspirations, but the pressure for him to strike while he remains hot appears too intense for him to relent now.

Discussions have begun for "X-Men 3" and a juicy rumor has floated about him becoming the next James Bond.

Her Majesty's Secret Service certainly did not have to deal with Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man in the same movie, however. That is Jackman's task in "Van Helsing." He retained Van Helsing's Dutch accent from the horror classics but his version is younger and studlier. But not too young, according to Sommers.

"We needed a man," the director says.

"If you look around, it's really hard right now. There's a lot of good, younger boys, if you will. And there's a lot of older male actors. Hugh's in that special place. To get a 30ish actor who's really great looking and a fantastic actor, that's really rare." *